Tag Archives: traveling by train

The Panama Railway today

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The current Panama Railway route stretches 47.6 miles (76.6 km) across the Isthmus of Panama from Colón to Panama City (by way of Gatun lake, Bujio, Barbacoas, Matachin, and Summit). After World War II, few additional improvements were made to the Panama Railway, and it was allowed to decline after the U.S. government handed over control to the government of Panama in 1979.

However, the Panama Railway has a long established history of surviving against the odds. On June 19, 1998, the government of Panama turned over control to the private Panama Canal Railway Company (“PCRC”), a joint venture between the Kansas City Southern Railroad and privately held Lanigan Holdings, LLC. Between 2000 and 2001, a large project was completed, which upgraded the railway to handle large shipping containers, and allowed it to complement the Panama Canal in cargo transport. The line is now single track with some strategically placed sections of double track to allow trains to pass each other. Since August 2009, motive power has been provided by ten former Amtrak F40PHs, five EMD SD60s and two EMD SD40-2s from the Kansas City Southern Railroad, and one GP10 diesel locomotives.

The railroad also has a fleet of several historic passenger cars in service, including PCRC #102, which is a vintage dome car first built for the Southern Pacific Railroad in 1938. Its luxurious passenger service allows travellers to enjoy a journey through the lush jungles of Panama alongside the scenic Panama Canal. The new railway caters to both business executives commuting between Panama City and Colon, and tourists travelling from Colon’s cruise terminals to Panama City.

The Panama Canal Railway is one of the great train rides of the world. Although short and comparatively expensive, the history and scenery make it a bargain. The railroad follows a picturesque path across the Isthmus of Panama between Panama’s two largest cities, Colon and Panama City. The line parallels the Panama Canal for most of its route, passing through lush rainforests, cruising alongside the Canal’s locks, through the historic Gaillard Cut and gliding over slender causeways in Gatun Lake. It effectively links one of the World’s less travelled but most attractive tourism corridors between Colon on the Atlantic Coast and Panama on the Pacific. Passengers disembarking at the Colon 2000 Cruise Terminal, the Gatun Yacht Club, or at Pier 6 in Cristobal can enjoy different shore excursions offered in Panama and ride the historic railroad as did our forefathers in their quest for wealth during the California Gold Rush.

The Chiriquí National Railroad

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Panama is most famous for its canal. Somewhat less well known is that the Panama Canal Railway was the first intercontinental railway, and still operating today. Even less well known are the various other railway projects that largely never materialized. A proposal to link Panama City with Mexico City by rail never came to anything; a more modest, local proposal to link Panama City to David also came to nothing.

However, although this latter project never got built, a more modest scheme at the Chiriquí end of the line did get constructed. The Panama Railway was commissioned to conduct a feasibility study into a rail link between Panama City and David (in the province of Chiriquí near the Costa-Rican border) with branch-lines connecting to Antón (in the Coclé Province) and Los Santos province (at the western end of the gulf of Panama) in 1910. The cost estimates proved too much and as a result, the Panamanian government decided to concentrate on a smaller-scale scheme, utilizing narrow-gauge tracks that linked the towns in Chiriquí province only.

The contract to build the railway was signed in 1914 and the line officially opened in 1916 when the first service ran between David and Boquete. The line eventually linked David and Concepción via Boquete, with a branch line between Dolega and Potrerillos and another, short one to Puerto Pedregal. Passenger services were provided by the Edwards Rail Car company on North Carolina, freight services including large numbers of bananas shipped for the United Fruit Company, were hauled by General Electric locomotives.

The railroad carried passengers until 1949, by which time the growth of road transport had made it uneconomic. In 1974, the remaining infrastructure of the Chiriquí Railroads was transferred to the Ministry of Public Works (Ministerio de Obras Públicas) and all remaining operations were stopped.

Today, the lines have been lifted and the steel rails and wooden sleepers reused to make bridges in rural areas. The station buildings still exist but are now offices and libraries. The Edwards Rail Cars, which may have carried Albert Einstein when he visited Panama in 1933, were allowed to rust away. Fortunately the two cars that used to run between David and Puerto Armuelles, and which had been sitting outside the Bugaba station have now been purchased by the local chamber of commerce and are being restored. There is even talk of making them run again, set up a short section of line and aim to run the world’s shortest railway journey!